AUBURN, Ala. — During his postgame press conference Saturday night, Gus Malzahn said he hadn't had a chance to talk to the contest's hero: Senior corner Chris Davis, who returned a field goal 100 yards for a touchdown as time expired.

So what was the first thing Malzahn said to Davis when he finally saw him?

"I just told him, 'Good job, great play,'" Malzahn said. "'Let's get ready for next week.'"

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel was at a loss to describe the play, before finally calling it "unusual."

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"Obviously it was remarkable execution," he said. "You have linemen as athletic as other players, coverage teams. It presents a real mismatch. It was great, great execution on their part. They deserve a lot of credit for it."

Pinkel said his team has such a play in its own arsenal, calling it "Chicago" to honor the Chicago Bears, who the Tigers took it from.

"When someone has a 55-yard field goal, right before they get ready to kick, we back one of our safeties up and put them in that exact same spot," he said. "We work on that. (A touchdown) has never happened to us, but we work on that. When we started working on that, we were much more cautious about that."

Lashlee garners more approval from MalzahnMalzahn continued to laud offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, who was nominated for the Broyles Award — which goes to the top assistant coach in college football — last week.

"Our overall offense, I get a lot of the credit, but he deserves just as much," Malzahn said. "He does the majority of the game planning and the work that goes with it (as well as) recruiting. He definitely deserves to be mentioned. I think that he's done an excellent job this year."

War Eagle Extra

Jordan D. Hill has covered high schools and athletes in the Bi-City area for the Ledger-Enquirer since January 2017. Prior to coming to Columbus, Hill was a freelancer for The Macon Telegraph and an intern for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A native of Jasper, Georgia, Hill is a graduate of Pickens High School and the University of Georgia.